I went to the school gate, carrying the box which held the clothes
I wasn’t wearing. Every step was an erotic event; I wondered how
long this would continue. Some of the other kids were wearing the new
clothes too, and we caught each others’ eyes. The girls’ clothes were
identical to mine, apart from the tailoring.

I found Neal waiting for me at the gate. His lifesuit was a
bright red with orange highlights; it suited his blond hair exactly.
For a while we just stared at each other, open-mouthed.

“So, what do you think?” said Corporal Roberts, walking up.

“Absolutely fabulous. Completely amazing!” said Neal. “I
love the Standard Clothing! It looks brilliant, and it feels
brilliant. How about that cloak! I want it to rain just so I can
wear it! My other lifesuits are incredible, too. Wow! This is the
best present ever!”

All the way, Neal was talking excitedly to the corporal, showing
off the clothes, the shoes (he was wearing the trainers), the way the
cuffs worked, the belt. I walked behind, loving his excitement and
joy, but feeling quite sad and incomprehending for myself. I was
still angry, deeply angry; it seemed the Government had betrayed me,
and I couldn’t work out whether Captain Hart was a party to the
betrayal. If he wasn’t, then he had been betrayed himself. If he was,
then—then I didn’t know what to do. One thing was certain to
me: I wasn’t going to be a party to any more Government propaganda.

All this was complicated by the erotic flashes which accompanied any
unexpected movement. I was completely hard; several times I thought
I was on the point of coming.

And then we turned another corner, and I was confronted by the
poster: “His wife left him with two kids. So they burnt him as a
paedophile. They burnt the kids too. They were twins, seven years
old.” My own words. I stood stock still in the street, staring at
them. I had used those words, and I remembered the little girls’
deaths, and suddenly my own problems seemed totally and utterly
insignificant. I remembered saying: I’ll wear them just like
everyone else, because the alternative to General Baxter is the
crazies. That was the point. If my quarrel with the Government
hindered what they were doing, I was letting down those little girls.
If I was annoyed with Captain Hart, that was one thing. But I would
have to continue to help. If I could. And that included criticising
when that was right.

I followed the others, still in a brown study, trying to make
sense of my feelings. When we reached the house, Neal bounded up to
the door, and it was open.

“Here you are!” said Aunt Judy. “Oh, my goodness gracious! Just
look at you! At both of you! Alan? Just come and see
this!”

She stood gawping at us in amazement and delight.

“Jesus Christ!” said Alan, coming into the kitchen. “I never
imagined... Well, boys? What do you think of them?”

“They’re brilliant! Incredible!” said Neal. “Look!”

He twirled with his arms out, and my aunt and uncle laughed at
him.

“What’s in the boxes?” asked my aunt.

“More clothes! We have to be able to wash them, don’t we?”

“But of course. Silly me! Oh yes, here we are. Different
patterns! And a pair of boots like Jack’s, very serviceable. And the
cloak! Very nice. What are these?”

“Tunics. To wear round the house or in the summer.”

“Hm. I see. Are your things the same, Jack?”

“Yes. Different patterns, though.”

“Uncle?” said Neal. “I think you should have a Talk with Jack.
He’s sad about something.”

I looked daggers at Neal. My uncle made a gesture with his head
towards his practice office, and I followed him; actually I was quite
pleased.

“You don’t like the clothes?” he said, gesturing to a chair.

“It’s not that. Actually, the clothes are much better than I
expected. It’s something else.”

I stood up and undid the neck buckle of my lifesuit, and allowed
it to slip forwards so that my shoulder was bare.

“Can you see something just there?”

“Yes. Small wound, like someone taking blood, maybe.”

“They injected an electronic implant. They pressed a special gun
there, and injected it through the muscle against the bone, they
said.”

“My God! What for?”

“It’s to check we are only wearing authorised clothes. Our
clothes have a special thread in them—if we wear anything else,
the implant will sting. After half a minute, it calls the cops.”

“Good Lord.”

“I didn’t know it was going to happen. Captain Hart always said,
it’s just new clothes, nothing to worry about. But when I went in to
get my clothes, they grabbed me and did that.”

“Didn’t you protest?”

“I was first in the queue, and Neal was second. They said if I
made a fuss, he would get hurt. I thought they were threatening him,
but later they said they meant there’d be a riot and people would get
hurt.”

“Just wait till Captain Hart hears about this!”

“He was there, Uncle. He was right there. He was in charge.”

“Oh, Jack.”

He stared at me, appalled. He understood the implications all
right.

“He took me off to a room afterwards and I just yelled at him, but
by then I’d been done and so had Neal. I think Neal thinks it was
some kind of inoculation. The captain said he didn’t know they were
going to do this, it was some people in another ministry.” I sighed.
“I’ve no idea whether to believe him. And I just hate the idea of
being chipped like a—like a criminal, I hate it.”

“Yes. I can see why.”

“The Government lied to me. Maybe Captain Hart did too. And they
used me to sell the whole thing to people and to kids. Even today,
they made me accept it so that the kids would accept it. It’s like
you said: I just feel like an expendable resource. Who cares what I
think? I’m just a kid. And I—I thought Captain Hart liked
me...”

“Oh, Jack.”

“I said to him, I’m not doing any more propaganda for you. He
wants me to go to London and do an interview about the clothes.”

“Yes, I agreed to that.”

“I told him to stuff it. And I meant it. But then—when we
were walking back, I saw that new poster, the one about the twins, did
you see it?”

“Yes, dear lad, I saw it.”

“And I thought, I said that. And what’s happened to me is nothing
compared to that. And it’s really true that the Government is the only
alternative to the crazies. So I think I’ll have to do it. I don’t
see how I can refuse, even if I can’t trust Captain Hart, and whatever
he thinks of me.”

“Maybe he’ll stop the implants now he knows.”

“No, he won’t. He thinks they’re a good idea—he said so.
Just that people hadn’t been prepared for them.”

“He said that? Hm. Then maybe he wasn’t lying. If he was lying,
he’d go along with what you feel.”

“That’s what he said. But he’s clever enough to think of that
himself.”

My uncle snickered.

“And you’re clever enough to think of that, and so on. The thing
is this. We know that Captain Hart isn’t above trickery to get his
job done. But ask yourself this: do you think he would directly lie
to you, knowing it was a lie? That’s what you have to ask. Can you
answer that?”

“Until today I’d have said ‘no’. Now I just don’t know.”

“Yes.”

“He’ll be round later. He begged to be allowed to come round.
And I just—I just couldn’t say no.”

“Yes, Jack. I understand. I’ll let him visit, because you want
it. But it’s also my house, and you’re my nephew. I’ll want to speak
to him too.”

“There’s something. He didn’t tell me not to tell you, but I
think it’s secret, so please don’t tell anyone else. But you’re my
guardian so you should know. He’s actually a member of the Central
Council. He’s the minister in charge of propaganda.”

“I see.” He sighed. “So if he’s telling the truth—it’s
dissension within the Government. Within the military
Government. Oh, Jack, my dear boy, please be careful.”

“I called him ‘Dr Goebbels’.”

“You did? Wonderful. Did it annoy him?”

“No, I think he was just amused. Sometimes I think he’s amused by
everything I say, and the angrier I get, the funnier he thinks it
is.”

“So you feel the Government has deceived you. You thought that
Captain Hart liked you, but now you find that possibly he has lied to
you, and manipulated and exploited you to support the Government. You
hate the implants, and you’re ambiguous about the clothes, but you
feel you have to support the Government, because of the danger of the
crazies. Despite that, you are attracted to him as a person. You
feel confused, angry, hurt, humiliated and used.”

“That’s about it. There’s something else. It’s difficult.”

“Maybe I know.”

“It’s—it’s about this thing, being controlled.”

“Yes.”

“I hate it. But—but there’s something in me that’s attracted
to it at the same time. I said I hate the implants, and I do, but
it’s not just that. The thought that—that all the time that thing
is controlling me, every single moment—it’s—well, it kind of
fascinates me.”

“Yes. That’s what I thought. That sort of feeling isn’t all that
unusual.”

“The thing is, I think Captain Hart knows about this. And it amuses
him more than anything, that I’m, sort of, writhing there, unable to
sort out my feelings. That’s what I think, and that is so awful.”

“Just because you’re amused by someone, it doesn’t mean that you
don’t feel for the person, or that you don’t think much of them. For
example, parents often find their children amusing, but the amusement
comes with great compassion and love.”

I stared at him for a long moment.

“Thank you, Uncle.”

“You’re entirely welcome. May I discuss some of this with him?
I’ve recorded this talk as usual, can I play bits?”

“Yes. I trust you, Uncle. I think I trust Neal, Auntie Judy and
you. No on else.”

“Thank you, son. That’s such a nice thing to say. And now I
think it’s time for supper. When will Ewan Hart favour us with his
presence?”

“He didn’t say.”

“Okay. He can damn well do without supper, then, for making my
boy miserable!”

We sat down for supper, and Neal was still bursting from
excitement with his new clothes.

“I think this lifesuit has got the best design of any that
I’ve seen. Look at the colours! I’ve never worn anything which is so
bright. Do you think it’s good, Jack?”

“No, there wasn’t time,” I said. “But they said we can choose the
next ones.”

“Look what happens when I bend my arm. Look... See? The
material squishes up on one side and stretches on the other. There
aren’t any creases at all. How does it do that?”

“Hey.” It was interesting. “Yeah, look, it does the same with
your knees, and round your tummy when you sit down. Cool.”

“Ask Captain Hart what it is, the material.”

“You ask him,” I said shortly.

Neal looked at me closely.

“You’re annoyed with him.”

“You could say that.”

“Why?”

I sighed.

“That injection they gave us.”

“That—that was pretty nasty,” said Neal. “I think that’s the
most painful injection ever, even worse than those rabies shots. They
knew it was going to hurt, too, they had Mr Dodgson hold me still.”

“Did they tell you anything about that?”

“No, I missed the talk, like you.”

“It’s an electronic implant,” I said. “It can check if you wear
anything except your Standard Clothing, and if you do, it pricks you.
If you keep on, it tells the police.”

“Really? That’s pretty cunning.”

“You don’t mind?”

“No. Why should I? I don’t want to wear anything else.”

I left it at that. It was just cruel to spoil Neal’s happiness.

“I spoke to that kid, Andy, remember him? He had this beautiful
lifesuit, all in light greens and yellows, kind of leafy patterns, it
really suited him. And he told me that they were the first new
clothes he’d ever had. He always used his big brothers’ clothes, he’s
got five brothers, and they’re always full of holes and thin bits, and
his mum always has to darn things, and the other kids would take the
mickey because they were so poor. And getting shoes was awful for
them, so his were always too big to start with and he only had one
pair. There’s still four of them under twenty so they get all their
clothes free now, it’s a major thing for them.”

“I can well believe that,” said Aunt Judy. “Kids’ clothes are
so expensive these days, and you just can’t get shoes.”

“Anyhow, now he’s just as cool as anyone else,” said Neal. “So I
think that’s good.”

“They look well,” said Aunt Judy. “I’m quite surprised,
actually.”

“Yes,” said the corporal. “Some of the older girls... Phew!”

“I thought you already had a girlfriend,” said my uncle with a
laugh.

“You can’t help looking!”

We were just finishing off the meal, and I was carrying out the
dishes, when we heard the captain knocking at the door, and my uncle
went to answer it. Because I was in the kitchen I could hear what
they said.

“Hello, Ewan. You’ve got some explaining to do.”

“I know, Alan. At least you’ll let me explain, I hope.”

“I’m not an unfair man. But I don’t take kindly to people who
make my nephews unhappy. I profoundly disapprove of unnecessary
medical procedures on children, and I think that lying to them and
mindfucking them is contemptible. At this moment you are in my house
simply and solely because Jack asked me to let you in. Come to my
office, please.”

They passed through our living room without a word to anyone. I
didn’t know what to do. The captain’s face was without expression;
it occurred to me how humiliating it must be for a minister and a
military officer to be spoken to like that, and I wondered why he put
up with it. Suddenly Neal’s happy prattling was unbearable. I gave
my aunt a look, and went up to our room and tried to read.

A while later, I heard my uncle call for me to go through to his
office. I went with my heart in my mouth.

They were both sitting at the table, and there was a place for me.
Captain Hart’s face was unreadable to me; my uncle gave me a smile
which was full of kindness, and it reassured me.

“It’s so difficult, this,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve ever
found something so difficult. You’re my nephew, Jack, and I love you.
I’m unlikely ever to be a father, and I look on you and Neal as my
children, a sacred trust left me by Adam and Julie. I’d die for you.
I’d kill for you, for that matter. Now you’re beginning to develop
a—friendship—with a grown man, and although I don’t
necessarily disapprove, I have to be concerned by the difference in
ages. Moreover that man is an extremely powerful individual. I have
to take seriously the question of whether he can be trusted. That’s
the first point.

“Then, I’m concerned by the activities of the Government. If Ewan
is to be trusted, it can only be that the Government is lying, whether
because it meant to, or because it’s disorganised in the way Ewan
describes, which I find almost incredible. If the Government starts
to lie to the children it claims the right to control, that’s
despicable.

“Lastly, there’s the way that Ewan is making use of you for
progaganda purposes. It makes me suspicious of his motives for
forming a friendship with you.

“You told me a bit before about how you feel, and I understand
those feelings very precisely, and share them in a way. But I think
we can only get your feelings onto an even keel if we address those
questions. What do you think?”

It was a typical speech from my uncle on an occasion like this,
and pretty much like what I remember of my father. I was used to this
sort of thing; it’s how things were dealt with in our family. I had
taken part almost since I learnt to speak, and it made me feel safe.
What I had to say would be listened to with care, and I would be
expected to frame my contributions in clear, precise sentences. I was
good at it. And just slightly, it pleased me to see that the captain
was completely knocked sideways by what we were doing.

“Take the middle first,” I said. “I don’t know what happened,
whether the Government is lying or whatever, if it did it on
purpose or it’s just disorganised. If they’re lying, I agree it’s bad.
But even at the worst, the Government would be much, much better than
the way things were before, and it’s the only alternative just now. I
think it’s right to support it, I think we have to do that. So
although it’s an important issue, whether they’re lying or not, it
doesn’t make much difference to what I should do at the moment. It’s
bound to affect my feelings, however, and I don’t see that I need to
change that.

“Which brings in the third point. I said I wouldn’t do any more
propaganda for the captain, but that’s wrong. That stuff needs to be
done and it’s not relevant to that what I feel about the captain, or
the Government. And from his point of view, it’s not relevant what he
feels about me, so long as I’m good for that function. I don’t see
that even if he uses me to do that stuff that it means he doesn’t care
for me. After all, people, well, form friendships with the people
they meet at work, don’t they? All the time. For me to feel badly
about being used in this way is silly. I should stop that.

“Then there’s the first point, and that’s the important one. Do I
trust the captain? Because if I don’t, I don’t see how I can be his
friend. I could work with him, but that’s not the same. And—and
I just don’t know. The trouble is, Captain, you’ve been so good at
making me do what you want, that it’s easy to think that you’re trying
to do it again. At the moment I don’t know the answer, and so I can’t
arrange my feelings sensibly.”

“And this,” said the captain in a low voice, “this is how you
think about everything?”

“It’s how we work on things in this family,” said my uncle.

“Well,” said the captain. “It seems that the crucial thing is
whether you trust me. I don’t know how to convince you, Jack. I’ve
heard what you were saying to Alan earlier, and what you said just
now, and as always I’m astonished by your mind, and—and your
sense of what is right. I can only say what I said before: that I
didn’t knowingly lie to you. I would never do that; never. If I
can’t convince you now, the only thing I can do is to beg you for the
chance to prove it in the weeks and months ahead.

“There’s one thing. You said you felt that I was amused by you
being angry and struggling to sort out your feelings. But that’s not
right—it isn’t amusement, or not only amusement; it’s delight.
Absolute delight. And part of the reason for it is that you won’t
have the least idea why I should feel that way.”

For a moment there was silence. I avoided catching his eye,
because I knew what would happen if I did.

“Do you trust the captain, Uncle?”

“I won’t tell you. If you’re going to build a friendship with an
adult, you need to be able to answer that question yourself, Jack.”

Again there was silence; and then Neal’s voice.

“Uncle? Jack? Captain? The Government programme’s just about to
start.”

We went to the sitting room. I sat on the floor near my uncle’s
chair. The sofa was empty, and it was the captain who sat in it,
right at one end by himself, and it hurt me to see his isolation.

The Council’s logo cleared, and General Baxter faced us.

“Good evening. In a moment, George Padmore will be talking
about constitutional developments over the next few months. Building
a new constitutional dispensation is vitally important. It will
enable us to move from our current military régime to something
more permanent and capable of development. It will involve many
things: a new police force, local administration, the evolution of a
franchise and of representative bodies, and a system of courts. It
may seem like dry stuff, but it’s vital.

“But before we hear from George, I have something very
important I want to talk about. And it’s this: the Government made a
mistake.

“This mistake is a bad mistake, because the Government broke
its word. It broke its word because different people within the
Government did not communicate properly with each other. There are
all kinds of reasons for this; we’re new to this game, we are still
getting things organised, we haven’t entirely decided who is
responsible for each issue, and who reports to whom. People step out
of line and interfere in each others’ work.”

I heard the captain snort.

“None of that excuses us, when we end up saying one thing, and
doing another, and the Government is seen to be breaking its word. If
we do that, we won’t be trusted and in the end we’ll fail.”

A picture of me filled the screen, and everyone in the room
gasped.

“This is Jack Marchmont. I expect you’ve seen his posters and
maybe his interviews on the TV, or heard his questions to Max
Margrave. Jack doesn’t pretend to agree with everything we do. But he
supports us. He supports us, because we have put an end to the
terrible things he’s seen in his home town, Chedley. Like most
people, I can’t help loving that boy.

“As it happens, Jack and I have a friend in common, a man for
whom I have enormous respect. This man has been discussing things
with Jack, and he’s the one who made the posters you’ve seen. And he
explained the Standard Clothing policy to Jack, and although Jack
wasn’t sure about it, he accepted that it would happen and said he
would cooperate. He trusted our friend, and liked him. And our
friend said to Jack that that was all it was, a new set of Standard
Clothing.

“But when Jack turned up at school today to get his new clothes,
that isn’t what happened. Instead, Jack was forcibly restrained and
injected with an electronic implant, an implant which will ensure that
he only wears his Standard Clothing. Our common friend, you see, had
been overruled by someone in the Government system, someone who
apparently thought that keeping our word to kids like Jack didn’t
matter. As part of the procedure, they recorded what happened, so we
can show you.”

And we saw me coming into the cubicle and being implanted, and
Captain Hart telling me to keep silent (though you couldn’t see his
face), and my greeting to Neal.

“Jesus, Ewan, you manipulative bastard,” said my uncle.

“Mind you,” Baxter went on, “a little later, Jack had a
few words to say, and I’d better warn you, if you think you’ve seen
him angry, you ain’t seen nothing yet.”

And then we saw me. Naked (they blurred some bits) and furious,
I was striding back and forth gesticulating and my face was contorted
with anger.

“You threatened to hurt my brother. That makes you scum in my
book, no better than a crazy. You made out that you were my friend,
and then betrayed me. You lied to us—you said this was just
some clothes, then you stuck that electronic thing into us. You
tricked and deceived me—twice now, once last week, once today.
My uncle was right about you, I’m just a throw-away to you, someone
you use to manipulate other people. You pretend to like me, but all
you really want is to use me to control the others. Well, you can
stuff your interview, and you can find yourself another fucking poster
boy, Dr Goebbels. Just give me my Standard Sodding Clothes and let me
out of here.”

“That’s the accusation,” said Baxter. “And this was our
friend’s response.”

We could only see Captain Hart from behind, looking over his
shoulder into my angry face. His voice sounded flat and without
emotion.

“Unfortunately, someone else thought that this would be a good
place to try out the implant scheme. It was dreamed up by some guys
in Security and the Children’s Department, and it has been considered
by the Council. So far they haven’t approved it. But yesterday
evening, those guys managed to squeeze it through a subcommittee as a
‘pilot project’.”

“To which Jack made the obvious reply,” said Baxter. “If
it wasn’t you who lied to me, then it must be the Government.”

On the sceen, there were tears on my face; and my voice was quiet
now.

“But Margrave and you—you managed to persuade me that it
wasn’t too bad. It’s just clothes, you said, but it was a lie. The
Government lied to me, because it isn’t just clothes. And once again,
you made me help. Once again, you used me to make the others
comply.”

“Jack’s right,” Baxter continued. “Either our common
friend deceived him, or the Government did. Now, I don’t know whether
Jack will believe me, but the answer is that the Government did. Not
on purpose, but it did. It broke its word.

“Why am I bothering with this, you may ask. Why am I bothering
with the problems of a single boy? Because they are an example of
what can go wrong. I’m talking mainly to Government personnel now,
when I say: this sort of thing must stop. We have a chain of
command. We have procedures for specifying a project, and for
defining who is responsible for it and the process for carrying it
through. It’s completely impermissible to do whatever you like, just
because it seems like a good idea to you. You do not know the whole
picture. Specifically, technical problems are not just technical.
People are always involved. This is a basic ideological point.

“We are a government. We will operate as a unity and according
to a plan. We will not permit people to carve out empires for
themselves by plotting and building factions, by tricking their
colleagues or even worse, by lying to our citizens. And government
personnel, at any level, who do these things will be rigorously
punished. This is not lightly said, believe me.

“As regards the issue of the implants, we will take counsel,
and discuss this, here and elsewhere. There are important points both
for and against. There are possible alternatives. I expect a
reasoned discussion. If Jack wants to take part, I won’t be at all
surprised.

“And in addition I want to say to Jack: Please, lad. I can’t
order you to do this, but if you want me to beg, I’ll beg. Please,
give our friend another chance.”

I looked across the room, and Captain Hart, the Minister for
Public Education, was leaning against the end of our sofa,
disconsolate and alone. I didn’t know what I could say to express
what I felt. So I crossed the room and sat down beside him, and
cuddled my body against his. And gently, his arm came to rest across
my shoulders. I looked round: and in the glare of the TV screen I
could see Neal, and my uncle and aunt, and Corporal Roberts; and all
of them, every one, was smiling at us. I felt small, and loved, and
very happy.

I don’t think I heard a word of George Padmore’s talk. I just
leant against Captain Hart, felt his arm around the tightness of the
lifesuit on my shoulders, and smelled his particular smell. I felt
exhausted, but the pressure of the lifesuit all over my body put me in
a sweet, delicious erotic haze. I was brimming with life. And a new
thought came to me: he’s suffered for me today, he’s been humiliated
again and again, by the implant guys, by me, by my uncle. But he
hasn’t given up. And nor shall I.

It came to me: General Baxter thought enough of Captain Hart to
appeal directly to me on national TV. The head of the Government did
that for him.

I smiled in the darkness, and leant against him hard.

“I don’t understand why you were annoyed with him,” said Neal.

Going to bed that night was different. We helped each other off
with our lifesuits, and Aunt Judy helped us work out how to hang them
up. She looked them over carefully, and pronounced them good for
another day. The tunics she hung up as well, and the other clothes
were laid out in our chest of drawers; our old clothes (apart from
Neal’s sweater) she bundled into a box to get rid of. It was both
exciting and a little sad; our lives had definitively changed.

Of course, we weren’t allowed to wear pyjamas any more, so we
slipped into bed in our trunks. It was a weird feeling the first time.

“I said. He told us over and over again that all that was going
to happen was new clothes. But it wasn’t true, because we were all
chipped, like criminals. He got me to tell all the kids it was going
to be okay, but what he said to me wasn’t true. I—I hate that.”

“I don’t believe the captain would do that on purpose,” he said.
“He probably didn’t know. He likes you, Jack.”

“I had to decide. I’ve got nothing to go on except the way I
feel. Now that I’ve calmed down, I just can’t believe that he would
lie to me, or that he would really harm me. So I had to give him
another chance....”

“Like General Baxter said! General Baxter spoke just to you, over
the TV! Wow!”

“He wanted to make a point about the way the Government works. It
wasn’t really about me.”

“That part was. Captain Hart is his friend and he was talking just
to you. You know he was! You’re going to be an important person,
Jack. You already are, in a way.”

“It scares me,” I said after a bit. “I’m going to London with the
captain tomorrow, to do an interview, and I don’t know what it’ll be
like. What if I do something wrong?”

“Just stay with the captain. It’s obvious what’s going to happen
in the end, anyhow.”